David Lindblom
18-01-2010, 02:30 AM
In the last couple of years as a Protestant I came to believe in what's called Corporate Election. While I'm no expert it does seem to me to jive pretty well w/ Orthodox views but I'm not sure Orthodoxy has put things quite in this way. I was hoping some of the more learned here would give me their opinions on this view. So, here goes.
This view sees the primary focus of God's choosing and blessings as concerning salvation and its affects to be corporate in nature. This would be in opposition to the Reformed focus on God's individual election where these benefits are predestined to come to pass w/ each individual. In the Corporate Election view God purposed to create a people for His own. The corporate head would be Christ. He is the chosen/elect one and all those in Him would share in His election, be a joint heir etc. God has predestined this group to be conformed to the image of Christ. It will happen. If one wishes to reap these benefits they must first become part of this group. If one leaves this group they have forfeited these benefits. Corporately speaking these benefits will be true of the group but only true of the individual so long as that individual remains a part of this group. We would call this group Christ's Body, the Church etc. This does not mean that God does not deal w/ the individual to make them more like Christ but that this happens only as that person remains faithfully in the corporate group, outside of this the person is cut off from this because the focus is on the group or community not the individual.
Does this make sense? Again, I'm not an expert on this view but before becoming Orthodox this made the most sense to me and still does. So....let's here from ya!
This view sees the primary focus of God's choosing and blessings as concerning salvation and its affects to be corporate in nature. This would be in opposition to the Reformed focus on God's individual election where these benefits are predestined to come to pass w/ each individual. In the Corporate Election view God purposed to create a people for His own. The corporate head would be Christ. He is the chosen/elect one and all those in Him would share in His election, be a joint heir etc. God has predestined this group to be conformed to the image of Christ. It will happen. If one wishes to reap these benefits they must first become part of this group. If one leaves this group they have forfeited these benefits. Corporately speaking these benefits will be true of the group but only true of the individual so long as that individual remains a part of this group. We would call this group Christ's Body, the Church etc. This does not mean that God does not deal w/ the individual to make them more like Christ but that this happens only as that person remains faithfully in the corporate group, outside of this the person is cut off from this because the focus is on the group or community not the individual.
Does this make sense? Again, I'm not an expert on this view but before becoming Orthodox this made the most sense to me and still does. So....let's here from ya!